• A panel on copyright and disruptive technologies involving three true experts on the subject: Andrew Bridges, Margot Kaminski and Wendy Seltzer.
• A discussion between two of the key Congressional staffers who (from opposite ends of the political spectrum) helped team up to defeat SOPA: Jayme White from Senator Wyden's office and Laurent Crenshaw from Rep. Issa's office, talking about Congress and the internet, and how to prevent future SOPAs from happening.
• A discussion asking if the internet has become America's "third party" starring some more of the key folks who led the fight against SOPA (including both Colwell and Crenshaw already mentioned, but also Maura Corbett and Marvin Ammori).
• Rob Pegoraro talking about why the media doesn't understand tech policy issues very well.
• A panel on the future of internet rights.
• This one, the title says it all: It's Reddit's World. We Just Live In It.
• Gary Shapiro on "ninja innovation"
• In Defense of Mashups looks interesting in that, among others, it would have Eric from Padmapper on the panel, and he's currently being sued by Craigslist for "mashing up" Craigslist with maps to make Craigslist more useful.
• I learned a while back that when the Bomb Squad/Public Enemy's Hank Shocklee speaks, you should listen, so vote for his panel (also with Julie Samuels at EFF, Michael Petricone at CEA and Paul Geller from Grooveshark) on making free content work for fans and for artists.
• Similarly, former rockstar, now brilliant business strategist Dave Allen is always worth following, especially when he'll be on a panel with Brian Zisk talking about music tech startups.
• Soundcloud and Wattpad together, talking about the rise of collaborative content creation? Count me in.
• Nick Grossman has some very cool ideas about connected innovation, and he wants to talk about a bunch of them at SXSW.
• Here's an interesting one on learning from China in terms of how imitation can help you innovate too.

To that end, each spring sees a new crop of tools that let you apply your personal taste to the SXSW artist list to find bands to see, or at the very least, hear from afar. Lastsx.sw is the best we’ve seen this year so far.

EarthPeople cobbled together the nicely-designed Lastsx.sw by grabbing your favorite artists from Last.fm (you are scrobbling, aren’t you?), finding similar artists in the SXSW 2012 artist list, and presenting you with handy links so you can hear those artists on Spotify and check out their official websites.

Lastsx.sw worked great for me — in fact, I’m enjoying some new (to me) stuff courtesy of the site right now in Spotify and scrobbling it to both Facebook and Last.fm, but that’s a different story. Also, I may never have realized that old fave The Wedding Present are playing SXSW this year, so now I have that to look forward to.

we had to shut down this site.

sxsw lawyers:
"We strongly believe that anyone who sees your solicitations or promotions will assume that we are endorsing your company".

as if this was a company endevour, or had any promotions or solicitations. total lameness. here's a thought for you: launch a public api. have a look at roskildelabs.com. their idea/attitude: perfect.

• Surviving Lulz: Behind the Scenes of LulzSec (this one looks fascinating)
• Set Your Content Free (It's Harder Than You Think)
• The Systematic Undoing of Copyright Trolls
• Appetite for Enforcement: IP Policy Evolves
• 3D Printing: Not Everyone Will Be Excited
• Hey, That's Mine! Who Owns Content?
• Thank You, Wow & Done: The 3 only metrics you need
• "Now there's music cloud, where's movie cloud?"
• Tricking People Into Reading Again
• The Revolution Will Be Published (by Richard Nash, who you should be paying attention to)
• Can Free Streaming Music Survive and Thrive?
• Everything is a Remix, So Steal Like An Artist
• Vote4Geeks: Why Techies Should Run for Office
• Promoting the Innovation Economy (Rob Pegoraro is always interesting)

You may have heard that the music industry is sort of falling apart. It isn't really a matter of there being less money in the pool - just that the money people have to spend on entertainment (which will always be somewhat of a constant) is just being diverted away from where it historically has gone (record labels and managers). The music industry is by definition an operation invented to divert money spent on music away from actual musicians - the problems that the music industry is currently facing have specifically to do with the fact that the money that would usually flow directly to the bigger economic actors is now going somewhere else.

Sxsw should be an example of where some of that money is going. While labels are trying to figure out how they can get their piece back, the question sxsw should leave for bands is how to get theirs, or to at least not throw it directly at hospitality and energy conglomerates in order to get to Austin and see your fans money go straight down the throats of Mountain Dew incorporated instead of into your pocket. And again, just to re-iterate - it's not like these companies are inherently evil or vicious. I kind of like Mountain Dew. It's just that they are way better than you at figuring out how to get peoples money, and while your job as an artists should mostly be about making great art, it should also be a little bit about how to be smart at if not making money, then at least not throwing an undue amount away just so someone else can make money at your expense. This is the crux of the matter - there is a big pool of money out there that everyone is trying to get - the music industry is panicking because a lot of the money that used to go from music consumers right to them, is now going to companies that are posted just on the periphery of music, letting bands and labels spend money making music, and then swooping in with music related marketing strategies aimed at getting some of that relatively free money.

It's amazing enough that Michel has the time to draw thousands of portraits a week amidst his incredibly busy schedule and his "Green Hornet" workload. Hopefully this commitment will urge other filmmakers to devote similar generosity towards their fanbases...

"By placing your sketch order, you hereby acknowledge... that the sketch is for your personal use only and you shall not have the right to sell the sketch for any commercial purpose whatsoever."

• A Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl will walk/skate across the stage carrying a placard announcing your sponsorship of the song, within full view of the audience or cameras, to have the moment captured on film or video for all of eternity!
• You can have up to 4 names or one business on each placard.